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Cultural pluralism class has changed my view of people I see every day. As a student who is studying nursing at West Coast University, I will have patients from different nationalities. This class made me open up my mind to everyone I will treat later on in an equal and fair manner. Choosing to go to Japanese American Museum opened my mind to see how they have settled in United States and how difficult it was for them to become a citizen of the United States.
This paper is about how my perspective changed before and after I visited the Japanese American Museum. When I started going to West Coast University, I was expecting more health related classes, like my other class, Anatomy which goes over names of body parts and where they are located. However my school gave me a class called Cultural Pluralism. I thought it is waste of my time and money for me to take this class. I was wrong. Taking this class not only opened up my mind about other races but taught me what they went through in order to gain their freedom and rights.
When I think of racism I only thought of African American’s. I never thought of how others like me, Korean American, went through racial discrimination and got our rights. When one of the assignments was to go too cultural museum I was very excited. I was looking through the lists of many cultural museums and saw Korean American Museum. Since I am Korean it was my first choice. I wanted to go and learn more about how they started living in America and survived. However, when I called the museum to found out their opening hours, they were closed for a conventional event. My next choice was the Japanese American Museum.
As a Korean, I always knew there was some hatred between the Koreans and Japanese. I understood how Japanese controlled Koreans when they took over Koreans land for many years and put them into science experiment and tortured them. However I think it is time now to forgive and we should move on. However many elders I know are still bitter about this issue. For example, whenever I try to take my mother to a sushi restaurant she says she will not pay her hard earned money to Japanese people, and that she will only go if the sushi restaurant in owned by a Korean not a Japanese person.
I was did not like her hatred of the Japanese and I wanted to see for myself at the museum how they settled in United States and if they are not all that different from Koreans. When I first walked in to the museum I had to say it was beautiful. First floor was all about Origami. Origami is work of art where they fold papers and make balloons, flowers, animals and other crafts Just by using their hand. It is simply a remarkable work of art. I remember when I was young I learned Origami with my mother and sister. It rough back my good memories of childhood.
It was pleasant and I enjoyed all the origami displayed. They even showed one of story of a girl named, Kodak Assai, who thought making thousand of bird out of origami will grant her wish of cure her disease and died at the end. When I was walking though first floor full of Origami, commercial of Acacias footwear using only origami impressed me. Also, it reminded me, how origami can be form of buildings and constructions. Not only work of art but simply science and math combined. After seeing all these wonderful and cute origami, second floor was what I learned room Cultural Pluralism class.
It showed details of how Japanese American came and how they survived through United States. Nisei are Japanese people who are born in America and got citizen legally. They thought getting education is the key to success but they were still Jobless after graduating from graduate schools. Nisei and other Japanese who does not have citizenship had to work hard to get through their mistreatment. When World War II happened they had to give up everything and go to the place soldiers told them to go. To gain America’s trust, Japanese Joined army ND fought greatly in World War II.
There was a lot of Japanese woman coming into Hawaii to be bride of Japanese man. After visiting Japanese American Museum it made me realize, we are not so different. Going into racial discrimination and hatred and facing hardship. Show a great work of art of Origami was one of things I really enjoyed. It did change me to see Japanese American differently or maybe the same as I always believed Korean and Japanese are no different. I highly recommend this museum to other students and other Korean Americans especially to go.